Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – If you are an ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, you need to be a star to get your citizenship papers. And even then it is not easy.
This is the bitter lesson learnt by international badminton star Hendrawan, who got his papers just a few days before leaving Indonesia to win the Thomas Cup in China.
He was feted by the whole of Indonesia for winning the third deciding singles match against Malaysia on May 19. His victory gave the Indonesian team the Thomas Cup. It was also a world record because Indonesia had won the Thomas Cup for the fifth consecutive time.
Hendrawan, who did not expect to win, told The Straits Times: "For me the pleasure of winning the Thomas Cup was that it means I am part of Indonesia's most historic team, the team that won for the fifth time." But, it took a while for the 30-year-old badminton star to be "officially" accepted as a citizen of the country where he is a household name.
Hendrawan spent almost a year getting his citizenship papers despite being born in Malang, East Java, to ethnic Chinese who both have Indonesian citizenship papers.
His case is another example of how arcane rules are exploited by corrupt bureaucrats who prolong the process of obtaining official documents, usually to get bribes.
What makes Hendrawan's case more bizarre is that the law requiring ethnic Chinese or ethnic Arabs to get citizenship papers, known by the acronym SBKRI, was revoked by then president B. J. Habibie in 1998.
But many departments still demand SBKRI before issuing other documents. They still refuse to issue vital documents such as passports, identity cards, land deeds and house titles without the citizenship papers.
In Hendrawan's case he was issued a passport when he was a child on the basis of his parents' citizenship papers. But still he wanted to play it safe and get his papers to ensure that his baby daughter would get hers, he said. He feared that she would not be accepted into schools or would not be able to inherit her parents' house without the papers.
It was only after the Indonesian press publicised how he had spent months waiting for his papers and President Megawati Sukarnoputri personally intervened that the Department of Justice and Human Rights speeded up the paper work.
"One day I complained to the journalists, the next day Ibu Mega telephoned the Justice Department and the day after that the papers were ready," he said.
Prior to the presidential intervention, he had even obtained recommendation letters from the Indonesian Badminton Association and the Indonesian Olympic Committee to prove that he was a member of Indonesia's badminton team. But even that was not enough.
"They just said 'We've never heard of you. We can't say how long it will take to process your papers'," recalled Hendrawan, referring to the Justice Department officials.
"If it wasn't for Ibu Mega, I don't know how long it would have taken to get the papers." Hendrawan said he did not personally suffer racial discrimination from native Indonesians, but he wondered how those who were not well connected or famous dealt with the bureaucracy.
"I don't know how people who don't have anything or have the President to help, survive," he said.
Justice Department officials pass the buck, saying that although the citizenship papers were not required, other government departments often demanded them.
"By law, SBKRI is no longer necessary. But in practice, many institutions face the dilemma of either being prudent or abusing someone's rights," said Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra. The Justice Department was now drafting new laws on citizenship, said the minister.
After his Thomas Cup victory, Hendrawan was asked by journalists about the citizenship controversy and not how he felt after the game.
"They also asked me now that I have Indonesian citizenship would I consider immigrating, say to Singapore. But I am Indonesian, all my family is here, so I don't want to move," he said.